Board and care
Six people in somebody's house
Of the 97 care homes the State of California licenses in Anaheim, 83 of them are board and care — six residents or fewer, in a normal house, on a normal street, usually with no sign outside. It is the largest part of this city's care by a distance, and it is the part you will almost never find on your own.
Picture a four bedroom house in West Anaheim. Two of the bedrooms are shared, two are private. There is a caregiver there all day and another who sleeps over. Breakfast is whatever the residents will eat. The television is on in the front room. Somebody's daughter comes on Sundays and brings pan dulce for everyone.
That is a board and care home, and for a great many families it is a far better answer than a two hundred bed community — not because it is cheaper, though it often is, but because the ratio is different. Six residents and a caregiver who knows all of them is a different kind of attention from a building with a front desk.
It also fails some families badly, and we will be straight with you about which.
When it is the right answer
- She needs hands, not activities. If the real need is help to the bathroom, help dressing, help eating, supervision so she does not fall — a small home does that better than a big one, because somebody is always within earshot.
- She was never a joiner. A community calendar of chair yoga and happy hour is wasted on somebody who wants her own chair and the news on.
- Noise and scale frighten her. For somebody with dementia, a long corridor of identical doors is genuinely harder than a house that looks like a house.
- The money has to last. One monthly rate that includes care is far easier to plan against than a base rent that moves every time her needs change.
When it is the wrong answer
- He is sociable and still sharp. Six housemates, most of whom are frailer than him, can be lonelier than a building with two hundred people and a dining room.
- He needs genuine nursing. Residential care is non-medical care. Wound care, IVs, a feeding tube, an unstable condition — these belong in skilled nursing, and a home that says yes too readily is a warning, not a convenience.
- He wanders, and the house is not set up. Plenty of small homes take residents who wander and do it well. Plenty do not, and an ordinary front door on an ordinary street is the risk.
- The family wants layers of oversight. In a small home the owner is usually also the manager and sometimes the caregiver. That is the strength and the weakness in one sentence.
Where they are
Anaheim's small homes are not spread evenly
They cluster, and the cluster matters, because the people who visit have to drive there every week.
22
ZIP 92804
20
ZIP 92806
18
ZIP 92801
9
ZIP 92802
8
ZIP 92807
5
ZIP 92805
1
ZIP 92808
The register also shows how young much of this market is: 35 of Anaheim's small homes were first licensed in 2023 or later, while the oldest still operating has held its licence since 1991. A new licence is not a bad sign — but it does mean there is no inspection history to read, which changes the questions you should ask.
See all 83 of them by nameIf you visit one yourself
Six questions that actually separate them
- 1Who is awake at three in the morning, and are they awake or asleep on the premises? There is a real difference and the answer is rarely volunteered.
- 2Have you done a two person transfer before, and who is the second person at 3am? If she will eventually need lifting, this decides whether she can stay.
- 3What happens when she gets worse? Ask for the specific condition that would end the placement, and get it in writing in the admission agreement.
- 4How much notice before a rate increase, and how much was the last one? A home that cannot tell you last year's increase is telling you something.
- 5What happens if the money runs out? Most small homes are private pay only. Ask directly whether they ever keep a resident on Medi-Cal.
- 6Can I come back unannounced on a Saturday? The answer, and the face that comes with it, is the most useful thing you will learn all day.
Common questions
Board and care, answered plainly
- What is a board and care home?
- In California it is a Residential Care Facility for the Elderly licensed for six residents or fewer, run in an ordinary house in an ordinary residential street. The state licenses it under the same category as a three hundred bed community, which is why the two get confused.
- How many board and care homes are there in Anaheim?
- The state's licensed register lists 83 residential care homes of six beds or fewer inside Anaheim city limits, out of 97 licensed facilities in total.
- Is a board and care home cheaper than assisted living?
- Usually, though not always, and the comparison is not like for like. A board and care home generally charges one monthly rate covering the room, all meals and hands-on care. Larger communities more often quote a base rent and then add care levels on top, so the advertised figure and the invoice are different numbers.
- Do board and care homes have a nurse on site?
- Generally no. Residential care is non-medical care by law. Some homes bring in visiting nurses or hospice, and a few owners are nurses themselves, but you should assume there is no nurse on duty unless you are shown otherwise in writing.
We have been inside these houses
Tell us what she needs and we will tell you which of Anaheim's small homes could take her, which we would rule out, and why. Then we will go and look at them with you.
Tell us who you are looking after
Four short questions. Nothing you answer is shared with a facility until you say so.
Prefer to talk now? (714) 975-9652, open every day until 6pm.